David Grajal » life

Ranking of railway systems

David — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:00:11 +0000

UPDATE: This is a ranking from the point of view of an independent traveler

Russia. It is very cheap and very comfortable in long distances. You have train attendances and a samovar with hot water in each cart. Trains are not fast but there is no need because distances are just too large and cities are one overnight hop from each other. Trains are extremely punctual because trains have a very flexible schedule and a lot of margin. The bad part is that the system is outdated and very complicated to use if you can’t read cirillic. You cannot buy tickets online.
Italy Trains are old, dirty and slow but it is very cheap and you pay by kilometer.
China. This is similar to the Russian system, but totally new. They have cheap, modern sleeper trains for the long distances. These ones have a similar configuration to the Russian trains but cleaner and newer. They also have a lot of high speed trains. Those ones are cheap, fast and new. It is the railway system with most modern technology on the rails and they even have magnetic trains that can travel really fast (450km/h). The bad thing is that you can only buy tickets 10 days in advance and only from the departing point and you cannot buy tickets online.
Japan & South Korea. Fast trains are really fast and cheap (With special tourist passes)
Germany. Tickets are expensive. Trains are the main transportation system… and it seems to be overloaded. The train system is a monopoly and there are not a lot of long distance bus routes. The people is forced to alternative methods like car sharing or hithhiking, which in my experience are sometimes more reliable that trains. The good part about the German system: it’s extremely foreing friendly because there is a lot of information available about what is going on with your train. It is a very developed train system that operates like an traditional airline with all the advantages and disadvantages.
Austria. OBB has all the features of BAHN.DE. But it is even more expensive.
Spain. Regional trains are very slow and expensive. Fast trains are very fast and very expensive and frequently fully booked. All tickets reserve a seat which increases price and makes impossible to take the train if there are no seats left. I traveled frequently in fully booked trains with a lot of seats left because people didn’t show up. The website is a complete disaster.

The big locomotive in Ulan Ude, Russia

New Year’s Eve in Madrid

David — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:00:08 +0000

To welcome 2011, Christina and I travelled to Madrid to spend New Year’s Eve, known in Spain as Nochevieja. We followed the Spanish traditions to bring you luck for the new year. You must wear new red underwear and you must eat 12 grapes on the stroke of midnight, one on each stroke of the clock.

Puerta del sol in New Year's eve

At midnight all the Spanish families are watching television and all the channels broadcast the same thing: The belltower on the Square of Sol in Madrid. Those who live in Madrid congregate in Puerta del Sol and eat the grapes before going partying until after sunrise. When I was a little child I always ate the grapes at home watching the people having fun in the Square of Sol. A couple of years ago I started to eat the grapes at weird times. At 18:00 in the afternoon when I was in Canada and early in the morning when I was in Beijing. But this year I was going to do it right. We went to Sol to have the grapes in the place where you are supposed to eat them.

It was quite an experience. A lot of people, yes, 20000 souls according to the newspapers. I’m quite used to that now that I’m living in Shanghai. Fortunately the people was not drunk and it didn’t look dangerous at all. Most of the people were foreigners but I could hear some Spanish voices. Maybe tourists as well. I doubt there are many Madrileños celebrating Nochevieja here, most of them prefer to have the grapes at home with their families.

The next night we went to a must-do tourist activity in Madrid. A Flamenco show. This was my second time in a Flamenco show and I must recognize I like it. This is a video you can see to have an idea of what Flamenco is about, but you need to be there to feel the waves and the special energy that the dancers and singers transmit to the public.

Shanghai Expo 2010

David — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:05:56 +0000

As the Expo was closing at the end of the month and I still hadn’t visited the famous Spanish pavilion I joined a day trip event organized by CEIBS. We went to the expo on the day that holds the record number since the exhibition was opened. In China, this means a lot of people. More than one million people visited the Expo that same day.

The passional dance show on the first room of the pavilion

The lines for all pavilions were amazing. Lines of 5 hours in most European pavilions and a 6 hours queue for Saudi Arabia Pavilion. We were lucky because CEIBS could gave us VIP passes for the Luxembourg, Italian and Spanish pavilions.

The CEIBS group that visited the Expo

The Spanish pavilion
The first room of the pavilion is amazing. The second room is very weak because the message is not clear and the third room has Miguelito. Nobody really knows what is doing there but it helps to create hype and attract media.

The best part of the visit, the restaurant in the Spanish Pavilion. I had amazing croquetas! Almost as good as the ones my mum cook.

My real passport with the stamp of the Spanish Pavilion

Friends in Shanghai

David — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:00:25 +0000

In September I had serious overbooking at home. Julio, Serena, Antonio, Alberto and Guillen decide to visit me at the same time . Julio and Serena came from Japan and the rest came from Spain. Six people living in my tiny apartment! A place that Carlos thinks it’s not big enough even for a couple.

I think we managed our space and time very well. I was pretty busy with CEIBS tight schedule but I could find some time to show them around some of the most representative places in Shanghai. They also travel by their own in the city and they know the city much better than me!

Serena and Julio arrival

The best moments were always in restaurants or pubs. Chinese food is a bit weird for our taste and the higienic conditions are not always up to Spanish level. It’s funny to see how people react in this stomach-hostile environment!

CEIBS, the business school where I study

David — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 08:00:25 +0000

You can read a lot about CEIBS in its wikipedia page. When I was researching the school I could not find a lot of pictures about how the school look like. I created this video for anybody interested on a virtual visit to the school. You can see the entrance, the corridors, classes, the restaurant and the beautiful environment where I will study until graduation in 2012.

CEIBS

Shanghai, my new home

David — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:00:33 +0000

Welcome to China

I’m in China because in 2010 I was awarded with an scholarship by ‘Fundacion La Caixa’ to study an MBA in Shanghai. I feel very lucky of having this opportunity, China is the place where things are happening. Shanghai looks new, in constant change and there are lot of emotions hidden behind the the neon curtains.

The city is a showcase to introduce modern China to the world. My mission here is to improve professionally as well as personally, and discover what China has to offer to the world.

Shanghai skyline

The end of my transiberian journey

David — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 08:00:12 +0000

This post is a compendium of all the stories I posted in this blog related to my trip in Russia and Mongolia in 2010. The next stories will be about my life in Shanghai and my trips in China. Stay tuned!

View David Grajal – Transiberian trip 2010 in a larger map

Transiberian Wheels

Why Russians don’t want to live in Russia. My view of Russia.

David — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 08:00:47 +0000

Dmitry, my host in Moscow wants to stay in Moscow. He is the only person I met who wants to stay in the place where here he is.

Lili, my travel buddy on the train betwen Moscow and St Petersbourg is planning to move to Europe

Alex and his girlfriend, my hosts in Saint Petersbourg, want to move to Europe as soon as possible.

Lili, my host in Kazan, wants to move to Europe once she finishes University next year.

Juliana and Yuliya, my hosts in Ekaterimbourg want to move out of Russia

Alexey, my host in Omsk wants to move to Czech Republic

Kevin, my host in Novosivirk wants to stay in the city another year and then move back to America.

Aliena and her boyfriend, my hosts in Krasnoyarks want to move to Moscow or Saint Petersbourg

Natasha, my travel buddy in Krasnoyarks wants to move to Czech Republic.

Do you see a pattern here? All of them are highly educated individuals that speak pretty good English. All of them want to leave the country or move from eastern Siberia to the big cities in the west. In Russia there is an economic and social problem that feeds a brain drain. Smart, educated Russians see the western world as a richer, safer, more comfortable place to live and have a family. On the other hand there is the hard Siberian climate. Siberian cities, while large, are very provincial, weather is harsh and there are no jobs for highly educated people.

Sunset in Kazan

However I think that Russia has many opportunities. I’m more optimistic about this country that most of the Russians I speak with are. Please don’t consider this a serious analysis, I didn’t check numbers, I just happen to see many positive trends. During the last 20 years the people changed their communist mindset, nowadays people is young and very well educated. The country receives massive cheap labor immigration from the old USRR Central Asia republics. Those southern neighbors are unstable but the Russian government is strong, and the southern provinces are some of the wealthier in Russia.

The country is very well positioned to profit from the rise of China, first because it is a direct route to the European market and because Russia is absurdly rich on natural resources. The technology to harvest those resources is relatively cheap (It was much more expensive with old Soviet technology).

The negative trend is the motivation of the people. Russians don’t have a strong nationalistic sentiment and they don’t believe in Russia. The situation is totally different in America or China, where ‘The media machine’ makes sure the people is confident on the future. In Russia people are afraid of the government and don’t trust the Kremlin. It will take time for Russians to like their flag and to start paying their taxes. Will they only need time?

Emblematic monuments featured on the 10 Ruble note in Krasnoyarks

David — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:15:28 +0000

I will never forget the train ride between Novosivirk and Krasnoyarks because a man suffering from down sindrome came to place and tried to speak with me. He had beautiful, deep blue eyes that looked straight to mine and he was absolutely amazed with my netbook. He draw something in Cyrillic in the air and was pretty annoyed that I could not understand him. After some minutes he felt bored and left me alone playing with the laptop and wondering how hard the life of a disabled person in Russia must be.

A stop in Krasnoyarks was not in my original plan, but when I realized how far Novosivirk and Irkustsk are I decided to make a stop here to have a rest. Once I arrived at Krasnoyarks the gypsies that had a lot of fun on the train helped me to find the bus to get to the place of my host Aliona. In her place I was received by some of her friends including Natasha, who spend a lot of time practicing her English while showing me the city.

Downtown
Krasnoyarks is a beautiful city with a cozy downtown that looks neither European or Asian but American. There is a main street with three story buildings and stores in the ground floors. There is plenty of space in Siberia and the people that founded the city and lived here at the beginning were all prisioners forced to move here from European Russia. At that time Siberian cities were probably like the wild American west so it make sense it looked the same!

In Krasnoyarks there are not a lot of turistic places to visit or do sightseeing, but it was nice to walk on the main streets and take pictures with the statues that decorate the city. Unfortunately the streets are very noise. Russians don’t appreciate silence and they have stores that play music with huge speakers. On our way back home we went to the supermarket to buy some food for dinner. I cook a spanish omelette and Aliena and Natasha loved it!

My hosts trying my Spanish omelette

The Russian 10 Ruble note
Aliona, her friends and I visited the really interesting stuff about Krasnoyarks: The places featured on the 10 Rubles note. We first went to the place where locals place locks as symbol of their love. It is on the top of a mountain, where there is also a monument dedicated to a local writer. From here there are amazing views of the Yenisey river. This is one of the biggest Russian rivers, it starts in Mongolia and ends in the Artic sea. In this place I met a German guy and I used 100% of my German vocabulary with him. He was the only person I saw drank in Krasnoyarks and I thought it was pretty funny.

Beautiful views on the Yenisei river

We had lunch in a tasty Russian BBQ and then we visited the Divnogorsk Hidroelectrim dam which is featured in the back of the 10 Ruble note. This dam is located on the Yenisei river and its massive, 1km long 100m high. It was a pretty impressive view indeed.

Divnogorsk Hidroelectrim dam

After that we went back to the city and drove to the top of one of the hills that overlook the city the small Orthodox that is featured on the front of the 10 Ruble note. It was in this place where I realized I was in the middle of Siberia, 10 hours by train of the next big city. Distances are really massive in this country.

Chapel on the top of the city

Next stop, Irkustsk and the Lake Baikal!

Leaving Germany

David — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:32 +0000

On 4th of February, 2010 I left Germany for good. This is the last post I will write from this city. This is what I wrote when I first arrived at Würzburg. At that time I could not imagine how much this city was going to change me. I feel different because I changed a lot personally and professionally. I’m more confident and more caring. I’ve met a lot of people that have influenced me. I’m still as open minded as before but I’m stating to forge my own oppinions. I guess I’m just becoming an adult and this is time to start a new stage in my life.

My lovely apartment and my friends stayed in Würzburg. I spent my last days in the city saying goodbye to the city and the people and just having plain fun. It has been another hard goodbye, leaving the city when I felt most comfortable. I will always remember the places, the smiles, the people, the jokes and the amazing good times I had there.

The next time I will be in the country I will be just a tourist. This is a weird feeling for me because I really think of Würzburg as my home. Thanks everybody for making it possible.